A bioreactor provides closed loop controlled environments to promote growth or cultivation of cells. During the cultivation process, cells are combined with a culture medium or media to form a cell culture within a bag. The bioreactor controls an agitation process, maintains a temperature and pH of the media, gas mixture and flow within the bag, and/or the like for cultivation and growth of the cells over time (e.g., hours, days).
However, conventional bioreactors typically require at least a minimum volume, such as two hundred milliliters (mL) or more of cell culture within the bag. Cells within the bag having a culture under the minimum volume can be killed by the functions of the bioreactor. For example, the cell culture can over heat and/or have wide temperature fluctuations by the bioreactor maintaining the temperature of the cell culture due to the reduced thermal mass of the cell culture within the bag, killing cells within the cell culture. Additionally, due to the low volume within the bag, condensate accumulating within the bag has a greater effect on the osmolality increase of the cell culture due to the loss of water. For example, the condensate accumulating within the bag increases the osmolality of the media affecting cell growth and/or may kill cells within the cell culture.
Thus, before using the bioreactor, an operator must scale up cultures from an initial volume, such as fifty mL to the minimum volume of the bioreactor. Conventionally, the operator scales up the cell culture within a static environment using a static culture vessel, such as a T-flask manipulated under a sterile hood and maintained in an incubator, until the culturing volume grows to the minimum requirement of the bioreactor. The initial phase of a culture before a bioreactor expansion consist of many open transfer manual steps (e.g., under the sterile hood) for scaling up cultures from the initial volume to a final volume or cell number suited for transfer into the bioreactor. Further, when the minimum volume is reached, the operator may transfer the cell culture into the bag for the bioreactor. The transfer process increases the risk of contamination and/or risks to the cell population. Accordingly, a method and/or system is needed for a more efficient and closed way to initiate a cell culture for cell cultivation.